


Red Comet

by brainfvck



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Eventual Smut, F/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-15 14:34:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28814997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brainfvck/pseuds/brainfvck
Summary: Most of the time, being quiet kept Anna Solaris out of trouble yet this time, it would entangle her in the mess that was Sirius Black.Fresh into her seventh year, Anna Solaris was looking to focus on her NEWTs and prepare for living without Hogwarts.Fate decides to intervene.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Remus Lupin/Original Female Character(s), Sirius Black/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	1. Brother Brother

Brother Brother

Chapter One.

Anna Solaris was certain of most opportunities having a positive impact on the lives of others, like charity for the poor, fundraisers for St Mungo’s, and giving her eldest brother Anthony a piece of her mind. Yet, the opportunity to do the last option would pass as her mother beat her to it. 

“Anthony Harold Solaris!” Vera Solaris shrieked from the ground floor, her lyrical voice permeating through the many walls of Apollo House to reach every occupant without fail. “Come down here, this instant!” 

Leaving her mother to give her dear brother a sincere chastisement, Anna gently rubbed the glinting crimson prefect badge in her hand with the sleeve of her cotton shirt. It did little to polish the artifact, not that it would need it in its glowing state, but it was enough to make the seventeen year old softly smile and pin it to her ocean blue cardigan before pulling it on. Taking her satchel and waving her unicorn hair and laurel wand to tidy up her mostly pristine room, Anna headed down the magnificent marble staircase to meet the rest of her family at the landing. 

Anthony, smiling sheepishly, took his sister’s satchel and shrugged it onto his shoulder, not before grimacing at the weight, “Christ Anna, Hogwarts does have a library you know? These books won’t vanish at home.” She playfully shoved him, before abruptly straightening her back at the arrival of her father, Thomas Solaris.

Thomas Solaris puzzled his daughter with his hot and cold attitude towards most issues. A private lawyer for a Magical Law agency, his stance on most things were careful and calculatively spoken. Descendant from a long line of influential Slytherin and Ravenclaw figures, it surprised most when he married an extroverted Hufflepuff woman who made a living from working as a potter. Bloodlines were never an issue for the Solaris family, for it seemed to be a trivial and unnecessary prejudice targeted at the uncontrollable aspect of biology. Thomas would be damned before he let someone mock his halfblood wife.

“Anna relax, I’d even shove Tony again for good measure,” her father joked, ruffling the family dog Rufus’ shaggy mane. “Are we all set to go, it's almost twelve?” They all looked at each other with an awkward pause, before it was broken with Vera Solaris rushing down the staircase. 

“Christ, Anna I went up to go check you were ready. We’re almost late, onwards!” Her mother was an eccentric woman, warm like a mug of milk and honey but also fiery if one got too snarky. She wore a beautiful moss green sundress, with her curly brown hair in a messy chignon. 

One didn't quite know what to do in the presence of Vera Solaris, most people stood and stared in awe but some scowled at her clear ‘Hufflepuff-iness” as Anthony put it. A potter, she made the most unusual mugs and plates, most of them being hung around the studio in the attic that she usually roamed around in during the early hours of the morning. The hufflepuff met Thomas Solaris at a Ravenclaw party that neither of them were invited to, as her father put it, yet her mother always interjected that she knew the host. They would get engaged after they graduated and move into the townhouse known as Apollo House. 

“Can we go now? I have an interview at the Daily Prophet in three hours! If i miss this chance, I’ll be stuck living here forever,” Anthony moaned, taking ahold of Anna’s heavy trunk as they all put on their coats. 

“He’s right, we can’t let him miss this opportunity Vera,” Thomas piped, “Imagine another year with him without Anna to balance him out, we’d go mad!”

After what felt like an overly prolonged goodbye full of hugs and kisses, Anna stumbled onto the Hogwarts Express with her trunk. Smiling at a group of fourth year Hufflepuffs who she’d mentored the previous year, the Gryffindor dragged her luggage to an empty compartment. Heaving the trunk onto the storage space above, she sat down triumphantly for doing it for the first time in seven years without the help of her smug brother. The moment of glee died down as it dawned upon her that she had a prefect’s meeting without a clue of the time it started at or where it was. For last year, she had been embarrassingly late due to a mix up of numbers and walked in when it was painfully silent.

Quickly standing up, Anna walked out of the train compartment and walked down the long corridors, passing from carriage to carriage as she looked for Bertie Halpert, her prefect partner this year. Spotting him in a compartment stuffed to maximum capacity with seven people, she pulled the door open and shook her head in disbelief at the sight of James Potter and Sirius Black sitting on Lily Evans and Marlene McKinnon’s laps. 

“Um, Bertie?” Anna questioned, not daring to take a step within the compartment for fear of catching whatever disease made Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew act the absurd way that they did. Yet the moment she spoke, instant regret hit her in the face as all seven people in the room turned their heads towards her. It felt awful.

“Anna! Anna Banana!” Bertie yelled, even though they were less than two meters away from each other. “I missed you this summer, where were you?”

“Uh, Spain” She replied, nervous under the gaze of seven people at once. Remus Lupin smiled at her, making her blush. “I was coming to ask about the prefect meeting?” Bertie nodded, fidgeting with the large buttons on his flannel shirt. 

“Why don’t you stay here, most of us will be in the meeting. Potter and Evans being head boy and girl does have its perks,” Bertie joked, before patting his lap. Remus quickly stood up, offering Anna his seat. “Ah Lupin, ever the gentleman”.

Anna quickly shook her head, objecting for she felt out of place and didn’t want to take his spot. 

“I’ll stand, please sit down!” She yelped, as Marlene pulled her down into Remus’s spot, “Okay perhaps not, I’m awfully sorry Remus-”

“No, please it’s my pleasure.” He laughed, a warm smile on his handsome face. 

Anna sat in their compartment for the rest of the journey, following them as they left for the Prefect’s Meeting and continuing to sit with them as the sky darkened and the landscape changed into the stunning Scottish scenery. She was sure that she wouldn’t talk to them this year, for she hadn’t before and didn’t want to intrude. This year would be her year for focus and achievement.


	2. Poetry and Pancakes

Poetry and Pancakes

Chapter two

It had been days since Anna’s encounter with Potter and his gang, and she saw them in the common room everyday and in the Great Hall and in every lesson. Well, being Gryffindors might account for that but she felt like with every corner she turned at, they would always be there, five steps ahead. It got frustrating, but then again, she could have just noticed that they were always there. For the past 6 years, Anna didn’t detest them, for she had a small space in her mind for Lupin with his admirable aura, but they could get tedious. It was hard to concentrate in lessons during the prior years with Potter and Black constantly bickering and hexing other students yet this year, they appeared to be calmer and less obnoxious. Perhaps it was the large shadow looming over the year, the NEWTs.

Anna woke up that morning lethargic and drowsy, as having 5 hours of sleep does to one after two months of bliss, but she was ready to face the new week. Checking the time on the new watch that her father gave her for her 17th birthday, she pulled the curtains on her four-poster bed and set off for the prefect’s bathroom with her toiletries in hand. 

The girls’ dormitory was emptier this year with the absence of Lily Evans, who moved into the Head Girls’ room along with Potter who moved into his respectively. It didn’t mean that the dorm was any quieter with the bundle of energy that was Marlene McKinnon. 

“Hey, Anna!” The blonde hollered in greeting, from her cross legged position on the other side of the room. She had a tarot spread out on the bed, a myriad of different symbols. “See you in the hall, yeah? I’ll save you a seat.” 

Anna smiled and nodded in affirmation, before pulling on her uniform to head to the bathroom. Grateful for the extra layers of the comfortable Hogwarts robes, she waved at Marlene before walking out and down the spiral steps to the Common room.

It was a mess. Abandoned boards of Wizards’ Snap and gobstones were scattered across the floor, with abandoned robes on the sofa. Some confused first year was sleeping on the sofa in front of the dim fireplace, presumably forgetting how to get to his room. Anna smiled softly, waving her wand to tidy the room up before gently walking over to the child. She flicked her wand at the fireplace, and it hummed gently in a motherly warmth as it began to rekindle itself. 

The boy, with messy brown hair that reminded Anna of her brother’s, was blissfully sleeping but she knew from experience that his neck would ache when he woke up so she gently shook his arm. 

He jutted awake, his eyes half-lidded from sleep and his hair sticking out in different directions. 

“Hey, um…” He mumbled his name, something that sounded vaguely like Thomas, “Thomas, why don’t you go up to your dorm to sleep another two hours? I can vouch for the comfort of the beds, they’ll serve you much better than this old lump of fabric,” She gently asked, smiling as he nodded. “I’ll walk you to the door.”  
Softly, she ushered him up the stairs to the door on the right, marked neatly with ‘First Years - Boys’. He mumbled a ‘thank you’ before heading in. 

Proud of how she had managed to be a model prefect at 6 in the morning, Anna began to walk back down the boys’ stairs, almost tripping on the last step as she skipped to the sofa to collect her toiletry bag. Just as she was about to walk through the portrait hole, she felt the irking suspicion that she was being watched. Turning around, she saw nothing but felt a presence in the room. Yet too tired to investigate, she shrugged before heading out.

After freshening herself up and curling up the ends of her stick straight brown hair, Anna walked out of the expansive Prefect’s bathroom and headed to the Great Hall for breakfast. This was before she checked her watch and realised that she would probably be one of the few people there, so she retreated to the library. 

It was quiet, as it usually was but especially quiet with the absence of students whispering or chairs being drawn, and the lamps were on with the morning sky being a dark blue. It would lighten in an hour or so, so she took a seat in one of the armchairs in the Wizarding Poetry section and randomly grabbed a small book. 

It was a beautifully bound leather book with different herb drawings etched into it, with ‘Property of Remus Lupin’ on it. Immediately upon seeing those words, Anna dropped the book like it was red hot coal. Curious as she was of most things, Anna Solaris was not into invasion. Gently, she knelt to pick it up and put it back where she had found it but heard a polite cough behind her. Spinning back, she found Remus Lupin leaning against a bookshelf with an amused smile on his charming face. He looked awake, unlike most of the castle’s population at this time. 

“Hello, Anna.” She could feel herself blush but mumbled a response. 

Winding her hands behind her back, Anna quipped,“I should clarify that i wasn’t-”

“I know.” He laughed as he responded, a soft smile on his face as he walked over to her, “I can’t keep a diary in the dorms, James would probably read them out in dramatic monologues and Sirius would take the mick,”. He stood beside her, a good few inches taller than her, “So I stuffed it in the last place they’d go to, ‘Wizarding Poetry’” They both laughed.

“Good choice,” Anna remarked, scanning the alcove with amusement, “I doubt that Potter would be into Ahmed Nott’s experimental poetry or Browning’s love poems.” 

“You’d be surprised with the verses he wrote for Lily, quite the artist if I say so myself.” He replied, and she couldn't help but be entranced with his voice. It was indescribable but different to most for sure, like a cross between an old muggle film voice and a folk musician. “So are you headed for the hall?”

Anna nodded, looking down at her doc martens before looking at him. “Let’s go,” She declared, standing up from where she had leaned on the shelf full of erotic poetry, blushing as she realised, “I had no idea that was there.” Remus smiled, nodding as they walked out of the corner and weaved their way through desks and out of the library. 

They questioned each other on interests and hobbies as they walked towards the hall, Anna learning much more about the boy she admired so much. He loved chocolate, she knew that of course, but he also liked muggle literature and music, recommending that she read Orwell and Woolf and listen to The Cure and Bob Dylan. Of course, Anna would mentally take notes on his recommendations and try them out. He was such an interesting man.

She didn’t even realise when they’d reached the hall, almost walking into a wall as he enthused about the lifespan of moonflowers. He stopped talking to gently scoop her away from the wall, giving her butterflies and embarrassment at the same time. As they reached the four long tables, Remus pointed at Sirius who was sitting alongside Potter and Evans, “You’d be better off asking about muggle music from Sirius, he listens to everything,” Anna slowly nodded, wincing internally because she only asked him about muggle music to carry on the conversation and listen to him talk. 

The pair walked towards the trio, noting how Sirius looked like he was ‘third wheeling’ and would be anywhere else but in that spot. As they approached them, he turned and smiled at them before patting the seats next to him. “For the happy couple,” he joked, before wincing as Remus slapped his back. 

Anna sat between Remus and Sirius, feeling awkward under the gaze of Black who seemed to be intent on analysing everything about her through his eyes. Remus filled his plate with pancakes and drizzled on some maple syrup, before digging in. Anna followed suit, grabbing a bowl of porridge and adding fresh berries. Sirius, who had already eaten a hearty sandwich, simply stared at her as she ate, prompting Remus to give him a stern look. 

“Say, Anna,” Sirius began, as she spooned porridge into her mouth, “at what time do you wake up?” he continued, leaning on his arms as he continued to look at her.

Anna, who managed to finish her food in an attempt to flee to sit near Marlene or Bertie when they arrived, replied, “Um, at six?” before turning to fully face him with a look of apprehension, “Why?”

“Oh, no reason.” He replied, before suddenly taking interest in the jar of honey next to him, “Look at this jar, isn’t it cool?”

Lily rolled her eyes and poked him in the arm, “Stop being weird, you crumpet!” before looking over at Anna, “Hey Anna! It's good to see you here, would you like to walk to Potions with me?” 

Anna smiled, “Of course!” 

Anna Solaris was certain of most things, but this year felt like a surprise potion in the dark. Yet she knew that she was in good company for the ride.


	3. Swaying in Silence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning for drinking though they are of age in the wizarding world (17).

Swaying in silence

chapter three

Whenever Anna walked into a lesson, she could feel Sirius’ red-hot gaze on her. Turning around in Transfiguration, she quirked her eyebrow at him in a questioning manner, almost telepathically screaming at him to give her a reason for his strange behaviour. Of course, he simply winked before leaning back in his chair to look at Professor McGonagall and her teaching. 

With a huff, she turned back to her work and continued to scribble about metamorphosis. 

As soon as the lesson ended, Anna stumbled from the doorway as she ran off to find Marlene, whom she now found was a good companion and brilliant baker. The blonde in question was outside, sitting on her cloak as she chewed on a carrot. “Marlene!” she called out, as she walked down towards her, before sitting down next to her. “Aren’t you cold? It’s mid-september!” 

Marlene, taking another crunch out of her carrot, replied with her mouth half full, “It's fine, I haven't been out very long. How was Transfiguration?”. Unlike most of her year, who chose Ministry-suited subjects after their OWLs, Marlene decided to take a more unconventional route with Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, and Alchemy. She had no concept of career possibilities or future plans, simply choosing to live in the moment and hope for the best.

“Transfiguration was alright, I’ve got a lot to do though,” Anna sighed as she leaned back onto the grass. Long green blades knived at the back of her neck, making it uncomfortable to continue to lay in its dominion, so she sat back up. “So what’s with the carrot?” she asked, having never seen anyone in the past 6 years hold, yet alone eat a raw vegetable. 

Marlene snorted, finishing her mouthful, before explaining, “Oh, Kettleburn gave them out to us to feed the unicorns but the one I was trying to feed kept running off.” She took another chomp, “So I thought, fair enough, I’m hardly the most animal friendly person. Like when I had a tabby cat that ran off in Third Year or the tortoise from last summer-”

She was cut off by a balled up piece of parchment hitting the back of her head. 

Anna turned around to see James, Remus, Peter and company walking down towards them. The company in question wrestling Remus for a piece of parchment, yelling “Come on, Moony! I hit one of them, it's only fair that i get them both!”. Eventually they stopped as they sat down besides them, with everyone except Marlene on the grass. 

Remus sat down next to Anna, missing his cloak with his sleeves rolled up to expose his forearms. As much as she liked to think that she was level-minded and wouldn’t stare at people, Anna appreciated Remus and his fine figure. He was one of the more attractive members of the year, as were the group he spent time with, and Anna wouldn’t lie and dismiss the fleeting pulses of jealousy that struck when she saw him with other girls yet who was she to feel that way when they weren’t together. 

After greeting him with a smile and a small nod, she turned back to Marlene who was busy gazing deeply into Sirius’ eyes, so she went back to facing Remus. He was plaiting blades of grass as he looked at her, before leaving it to look back at his notes from Transfiguration. 

“Where’s Lily?” Anna asked James, who was tending to a cut that Peter had received from a hex while they were bickering earlier. “I haven’t seen her all morning.”

“Oh she went to go look for board games for the party today. You’re still up for it, right?” He asked, looking up from Peter’s arm to her. “It’ll be fun!”

“What’s this?” Remus asked, joining them. 

“Oh I was reminding Anna of the party tonight,” James answered, before waving his wand at Peter’s arm to seal it up. “Remus would be so over the moon if you came.” Sirius barked out a laugh and Peter giggled.

“Alright, only because I agreed before.” Anna gave in, remembering that she had promised Lily earlier. Her mother would be disappointed if she ever went back on her word to anyone. 

“Can’t wait!” Peter chirped, before taking his arm back from James’s grasp. “Thanks, Jamie!”

Anna stood in front of the shared mirror in the dorm, analysing what to wear without not to be too loud or too quiet. Lily joined them, bringing up her clothes and makeup from her room to get ready. Eloise Lamb and Flora McLaggen were already downstairs helping to set up the common room. It was supposed to be a fairly large party to celebrate their last year at Hogwarts, with students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw being welcomed to join. After sifting through her trunk for something to wear, Anna settled on a green mini skirt and blouse. Pairing it with her mother’s dangle flower earrings and a string of pearls, she lightly curled the ends of her hair and brushed her fringe to one side. Finding her appearance enough for a party, she stepped out of the dorms and headed down to the common room. 

Bertie was preparing drinks, shaking a jug of ice with giggle water and cranberry juice, loudly chatting with a pretty Ravenclaw girl with long chestnut brown hair. Marlene was sitting on the sofa, a glass of elven wine in hand as she conversed with Inez Greengrass and Julia Kim. Lily was standing in a corner with James, whispering and giggling to each other as they looked around the room. Sirius was critiquing Amos Diggory’s muggle music knowledge as they stood beside the gramophone. 

As Anna sipped on her cranberry gigglewater, finding it quite refreshing, Peter came up to her and started a conversation on the 1920s prohibition across the waters in America. She didn’t know much about history but was delighted to hear his passionate input on “no-maj” relations with the MACUSA. With every sip of her drink, she felt less uptight and more loose. As Penelope Parker came up to Peter, Anna excused herself to walk up to Remus, who was sitting on a wooden bar stool that looked suspiciously a lot like one of the chairs from The Three Broomsticks. 

Mustering the abundance of liquid courage from within her, Anna stood next to him, with their heads at an unusually equal height. He quickly turned to look at her, their eyes meeting with an intensity that made her heart race. His pupils were wide open, though she blamed it on the lights in the common room, and she could see flecks of gold within his hair. He was so beautiful, like an angel sent down from above.

“Anna, are you okay?” he asked, bringing her back to reality from her thoughts. Her cheeks were flushed, probably from her drink, but Anna felt incredibly giggly. “What’s in your drink?” He enquired, gently taking it from her hand to taste it, before grimacing at the flavour. “How have you been drinking this? It’s practically just giggle water!”

Anna smiled softly, before swaying her head to the music in the background. Selene Warbuck was playing from the gramophone, her dulcet tones circling her head as it played around the room. Taking Remus’ hand, she pulled him from the chair and put his hand on her waist. He quickly put her drink on the barstool and continued to sway around the common room with her as the song continued. They weren’t the only ones dancing, for six or seven couples were dancing to the song. The sun was down, making the common room even more atmospheric as the candles around the room cast shadows around the room. 

She could feel Remus’ heart beat as she leaned against his chest, like a pair of drums ceremoniously playing to a march. Eventually their swaying led them to a corner, where they simply stood with her wrapped in his arms. People were joining, even though the party had been on for quite a while. 

Feeling a hot gaze on her, Anna’s eyes darted towards Sirius, who grinned at her before raising his tumbler of firewhiskey at her. He mouthed something that she was far too tired to understand but Remus chuckled, signalling that it must have been funny. Turning around, she looked up at him with what must have looked like tiredness but was really just adoration. He stroked the top of her head before ushering her out of their corner. The music changed to something much more fast paced as they walked towards the stairs that led to the girls’ dormitories. 

“I think you need some sleep,” Remus advised, leading her towards the stairs but staying at the bottom of the staircase. “I’d help you but we’d be here for a while trying to get up there.” Sleepily nodding, Anna stumbled up the stairs and collapsed into her bed, already sensing the headache she would get in the morning.


End file.
